1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hand protecting grips or handguards for use with hand held articles having thin handles or loops for carrying, such as plastic shopping bags, and more particularly to a plastic bag handguard that provides convenient installation and removal of one or more items and which is economical to produce.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many products currently in the market place are packaged or loaded into containers having thin, narrow handles of various types. For example, large paint cans have thin wire handles, and the increasingly popular plastic grocery bags have thin ribbon-like carrying handles or loops which can cause significant discomfort to the hand. In spite of the irritation caused by these items, very few people bother with providing any kind of hand protection.
Handguards for plastic shopping bags have been the subject of patents, but for various reasons the devices are not widely used. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,926 issued to Dieterich, Jr., a trough-like device with slots in the ends is disclosed. This device includes a pair of overlapping tabs at opposed ends of the handguard for retaining the handguard to the straps or handles of the plastic bag. A disadvantage with this device is that it requires two handed manipulation to detach the handguard from the loop handles of the plastic bag. A similar device is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,235 issued to Stewart. In Stewart, however, the tabs of the opposed ends do not completely overlap thus permitting the handguard to became separated from the plastic bag handles when the bag is set down. This is undesirable for the case where the user sets down the bags for only a short time and intends to pick them up again, for example, after placing the bags in a car trunk during a shopping trip and then carrying the bags from the car to the home. A cylindrical grip with a longitudinal slot is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,519 issued to Leonard. Similar to the Stewart device, the presence of the slot in the Leonard handguard permits the handguard to fall off or become unintentionally separated from the plastic bag when the bag is set down.
Accordingly, despite the number of patented handguards which exist, there remains an apparent need for an improved handguard that isn't being met. First and foremost, the preferred handguard should be inexpensive to manufacture and should be durable for repetitive use. It is also desirable that the handguard be small in size so that it is easy to carry unobtrusively, in a shirt pocket for example. The handguard should also be designed to evenly distribute bag load over the gripping fingers of a user so as not to cut or cause discomfort to the user's hand. An ideal handguard should also be able to securely engage a number of plastic grocery bags, with installation and removal requiring little or no effort.